Robert A. Uhl

Is Windows easier to install?

Dave Fancella’s wife had more difficulty installing Windows than Linux. A good read, with some interesting points, most notably that the Windows install made her feel unintelligent, but the Mandrake Linux install made her happy. 07 February 2018: updated with new link Read more →

DVD manufacturers, don’t hate your customers!

As frequent readers know, I watch an amazing number of DVDs. In so doing, I’ve hit upon some common flaws in their presentation. These are all rooted in the hatred and disrespect which manufacturers have for their customers. Here’s a catalogue thereof. Region coding Region coding is the means by which a manufacturer can prevent certain DVDs from being played in the US, or the UK, or Russia, or any of the other regions of the world. Read more →

DVD manufacturers, don’t hate your customers!

As frequent readers know, I watch an amazing number of DVDs. In so doing, I’ve hit upon some common flaws in their presentation. These are all rooted in the hatred and disrespect which manufacturers have for their customers. Here’s a catalogue thereof. Region coding Region coding is the means by which a manufacturer can prevent certain DVDs from being played in the US, or the UK, or Russia, or any of the other regions of the world. Read more →

Bob Bemer, RIP

Bob Bemer, one of the creators of ASCII, the man who invented the escape sequence, recently passed away. Read more →

Bob Bemer, RIP

Bob Bemer, one of the creators of ASCII, the man who invented the escape sequence, recently passed away. Read more →

Microsoft considered harmful

Russian organised crime is exploiting flaws in IIS and IE to infect Windows hosts. They infect a Windows web servers running Internet Information Server, and then use it to infect visitors who are running Internet Explorer. Meanwhile, users of real OSes, web servers and web browsers are invulnerable. When will the world learn: Microsoft cannot be trusted to run one’s business, home or anything else. 4 February 2018: Microsoft actually learned a lot about security in the 2000s, and have really cleaned up their act. Read more →

Microsoft considered harmful

Russian organised crime is exploiting flaws in IIS and IE to infect Windows hosts. They infect a Windows web servers running Internet Information Server, and then use it to infect visitors who are running Internet Explorer. Meanwhile, users of real OSes, web servers and web browsers are invulnerable. When will the world learn: Microsoft cannot be trusted to run one’s business, home or anything else. /4 February 2018: Microsoft actually learned a lot about security in the 2000s, and have really cleaned up their act. Read more →

Maxima

Maxima is a cool symbolic algebra system based on software which has been around since the 1960s and which has been continuously updated since. Available under the GPL, it has survived even the death of the maintainer. Very cool, if math is one’s thing. And neat no matter what. Read more →